The Meeting de Paris saw records tumbling like dominos last weekend. During a blisteringly fast women's 1500m final on Sunday, Kenyan runner Faith Kipyegon smashed her own world record, while Australia's Jessica Hull and Britain's Laura Muir took national records.
Kipyegon, a two-time Olympic champion, clocked 3:49.04 to claim the win, surpassing her previous record of 3:49.11, set last year in Florence. The 30-year-old said she wanted to use the race as an opportunity to benchmark her fitness. 'I was coming here to just run my race and to see what shape I’m in to defend my title at the Olympics,' she told AP News. 'I knew the world record was possible because I recently ran very fast in Kenya.'
Hull came in second with 3:50.83 after running a very strong race, where she managed to hold onto Kipyegon until the back straight of the final lap. That is the fifth-fastest of all time and also the Oceania record.
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Olympic silver medallist Muir completed the podium with a time of 3:53.79, breaking her own national record, set at the Tokyo Olympics, by 71 hundredths of a second.
‘I absolutely had to run my own race and I’ve only ever run 3:54 once and that was in Tokyo,' Laura told Scottish Athletics afterwards.
‘I knew it would take something special to beat that time. In fact, it would have been special to hit 3:54 again. I’m emotional to run that time – it means a lot to me.'
On Friday, Muir was announced on GB's Olympic squad heading to Paris later this month, and says her record-breaking run has giving her a lot of confidence going into the Games, where she hopes to medal once again.
Georgia Bell – Britain's 1500m champion also heading to Paris – posted a personal best of 3:56.54.
Elsewhere, Ukrainian athlete Yaroslava Mahuchikh recorded the joint-fourth highest jump in history in the women's high jump, clearing 2.10m to break a 37-year record.
